The Beekeeper's Daughter (Harlequin Super Romance)

by Carter, Janice

  “Yeah? Will that work?”

  Her smile was somewhat indulgent. After stepping into it, he pulled his arms through and, sucking in his stomach, tugged up the zipper. About four inches of jeans hung below the cuffs of the bee suit and at least three inches of shirtsleeve below the wrist band. Will tried not to imagine how he looked. Annie was averting her eyes.

  “Here,” she said, handing him a large pair of long, woolly socks. “Pull them up over your jeans and the cuffs of the suit. Dad’s boots will probably fit. He has big feet.”

  “Will I be able to run in these?” he asked, once he’d squeezed his feet into the tall rubber boots.

  “Run?” Annie stopped to look at him, her own bee suit halfway up her legs.

  “In case the bees attack.”

  To her credit, she continued pulling up her suit before replying, “Running won’t do you much good, Will. The idea is to prevent anything from happening that would make you want to run.”

  Sweat trickled down his armpits. “Such as?”

  “You’re going to stay behind me and do everything I tell you, for one thing. The bees aren’t dangerous, but they will be angry when we start disturbing their hives. That’s why I have the smoker. Some of them will buzz around you, but as long as there are no gaps in your suit, you’ll be fine.”

  She zipped up her own and shoved her feet into her boots. Then she handed him a pair of gloves before grabbing hers. “You won’t need to put these on until we’re at the beeyard. Don’t forget your hat,” she said as he turned to leave without it.

  Will glanced at the pith helmet-style hat with its curtain of fine mesh. Somehow the outfit didn’t look as glamorous as he remembered. He eyed the metal smoker with its accordion-like bellows. It looked pretty damn small. “Does that produce enough smoke?”

  “Yep. Besides, it’s a sunny day. Most of the worker bees will be out of the hives searching for nectar. The smoke will make any still inside think their hive is on fire. They’ll fill up with honey and fly down to the lower supers. When I give the word, you place this bee excluder on top of the second super from the bottom.” She held up a flat metal grid with a cross-hatched pattern that resembled something that might fit on a barbecue.

  Will couldn’t resist a skeptical look.

  She smiled. “It’ll stop them from coming back up into the top part of the hive to get at the honey.”

  “What about the queen? What’s she doing while all this is going on?”

  “The queen and her brood are in the bottom two supers.”

  He wondered how many bees would decide to stay behind to guard the honey instead of joining the queen. When he glanced at Annie, she was grinning. “Do I look that funny?”

  She shook her head. “Not at all. You look like a real beekeeper. Well,” she added, “a real nervous beekeeper.”

  Exactly, Will was thinking, as they got in the truck and drove out to the colony at the back of the property. Although it was a mere fifteen-minute walk, they’d need the truck to bring back the supers full of honey.

  “I’ve never seen or tasted buckwheat honey, but I read somewhere that it’s very dark,” he said as they drove by the buckwheat field.

  “Dark and bitter. It’s an acquired taste. Most of our customers prefer the pale clover honey, but surprisingly there’s still a good market for the buckwheat.”

  “So the honey we’re collecting today, is that from the buckwheat or what?”

  When she didn’t answer right away, he turned her way. She looked amused.

  “No. This is the spring honey,” she said.

  “Yeah…I get that part.”

  “The buckwheat doesn’t bloom until summer. This honey’s from spring clover or fruit blossoms.”

  “Oh.” His eyes flicked back to the tall green plants for a second. “Right. Should have thought of that. Must be the city boy in me.”

  “Newark can’t be all asphalt and concrete.”

  “The section of the city where I grew up only had a few green areas. I remember some people turned an empty lot into one of those community gardening projects. I spent a lot of time in it. It was a place I could relax in, feel at peace. It got me through a lot of bad times.”

  Her face sobered and Will instantly regretted the comment, realizing that it opened the door to a conversation he didn’t feel like getting into right then. She looked like she was about to ask him something but they’d reached the end of the trail. The truck lurched to a stop.

  Annie looked over at Will. “Just follow my lead and do what I say. Everything will be fine.”

  As a firefighter, he’d been the one to give orders. How life had changed!

  “You okay?”

  Will blinked. “Yes, just drifted off for a second there.”

  She raised an eyebrow and smiled. “So long as you don’t drift off while I’m waiting for you to lower the excluder.”

  “Right.”

  Will helped her remove the equipment from the back of the pickup and they carried it the few yards to the hives, stopping a few feet away to put on their hats and gloves. Will had a sudden flashback to his fire training days, when he was still trying to figure out the various snaps and flaps on his bunker gear.

  “All set?”

  He couldn’t see her face clearly through the mesh, but her voice was edged with doubt. “Just waiting for you,” he said, louder than necessary but with as much confidence as he could muster.

  She took the smoker and headed for the first hive, removing its top cover. Will watched as she squeezed the bellows and gently puffed smoke across the exposed super. A cluster of bees flew up at her and instantly Will stepped back. Annie continued working the smoker, apparently oblivious to the bees swarming around her head.

  A pulse drummed at Will’s temples. He forced himself to take a slow, deep breath.

  “Will?” Annie raised her head from the smoker. “Can you lift this super when I give the word?”

  Bees, he told himself. Tiny honey bees and smoke from a handful of wood chips. That’s all this is. He walked slowly toward her. In spite of the smoke, there appeared to be an awful lot of bees still circling.

  Annie squeezed the bellows a couple more times. “Okay.”

  Will set his gloved hands into the slots on either side of the super and pulled. It was heavier than he’d expected and he made a kind of dipping motion, raising and lowering it before managing to heave it completely off the hive. A cloud of bees flew up into his face, brushing against the mesh of his hat.

  A surge of adrenaline sent blood rushing to his head and for a moment, he was afraid he was going to pass out.

  Annie puffed more smoke onto the super and said, “Take that as far as you can carry it. The bees will leave you alone after a few seconds.”

  He didn’t quite make it to the truck, but was forced to lower the super onto the ground midway. When he stood, he waited until the vertigo left him. He suspected his face was bright red beneath the dark mesh and was glad Annie couldn’t see. When the sense of panic eased, Will went back to the hive.

  Annie was waiting for him, seemingly oblivious to what was happening. Except that just before she stopped smoking the second super, she asked, “Feel up to finishing this now, or do you want to take a break?”

  “Let’s keep on,” he said, stooping to lift the other super.

  “Okay.”

  They worked silently for another hour, removing supers, setting the bee excluders down and replacing the supers back on the hives.

  “It takes a few days to get all the bees settled at the bottom of the hive,” Annie said. “Then we’ll come back for the honey. Dad and I have already set bee excluders in those over there.” She pointed to a cluster of hives with stones on their covers. “We marked them so we’d know which hives to take honey from on the next round. We’ll do them just before we leave.”

  Will was prepared for the next hive. He took a deep breath as he raised the cover and clenched his teeth when the first cloud of bees flew up
in his face. By the third hive, his heart rate scarcely budged and by the time they set the last excluder, he was feeling like a pro.

  “Now we take the honey. The supers will be heavy, but there won’t be many bees to bother us.”

  Will wondered if she was smiling underneath the dark gauze of her hat. But she was right about the honey part. His heavy breathing was purely from hard labor this time. When they were finished, they both sagged against the side of the pickup, ripping off their hats and gloves to let the slight breeze cool them.

  “So what did you think?” Annie asked.

  Will hesitated. “Harder work than I expected,” he began, “and I admit to feeling some panic when that first super came off. I was expecting them to go down to the bottom right away.”

  “There are always a few that get angry rather than frightened.” She closed the rear end of the truck. “How about a sandwich and a cold drink back at the house?”

  “Great,” he said, tossing his hat on top of hers in the back of the truck and climbing into the passenger side. “So what’s on the agenda after lunch?” he asked after she slid behind the steering wheel.

  “More of the same?”

  “Okay. I’ll be an expert by the end of the day.”

  “Definitely,” she said, glancing across at him. They both laughed at the same time.

  They were almost at the house when she asked, “It’s none of my business really, but did you have some kind of spell back there?”

  “Spell?”

  “At the beginning, you seemed to freeze up.”

  After a slight hesitation, he muttered, “I had a small panic attack.”

  “Yeah? Like, some kind of flashback to…you know…the fire?”

  “I guess so. It wasn’t a big deal.”

  “You think the smoke triggered it?” She looked more curious than concerned.

  He shrugged. “Maybe. Who knows.”

  Will felt relieved when she dropped the subject. “Do we go back to that same colony this afternoon?”

  “I should check the hives at the McLean place.”

  “Is Danny still able to look in on your place when you’re in Charlotte?”

  “I think so. His summer school course doesn’t start until next week.”

  “Well, it’s already Wednesday,” Will said. “When were you thinking of leaving?”

  “Tomorrow or the day after.”

  “So maybe as late as Friday.”

  She heaved a sigh. “I guess I’ll have to give him a call when we get back to the house. Sometimes he races his dirt bike on the weekend.” She slowed down, letting the truck coast the last few yards to the parking area at the back of the farmhouse.

  Once inside, Annie directed Will to the bathroom. “You go ahead. I’ll wash up here at the sink and get some lunch stuff out.”

  She was setting packets of cold meats and various cheeses on the table when Will returned. His hair was damp as if he’d stuck his head under the tap.

  “Have a seat,” she said, glancing up from where she squatted in front of the fridge. “Do you like Dijon mustard? I know there’s a jar in here somewhere. And what do you want to drink?” She glanced back at him. “There’s beer.”

  He shook his head. “Maybe at the end of the day, when we’ve finished.”

  It was the answer she’d hoped he’d give. There was still much to do. She shut the fridge and sat across from him at the table. He didn’t wait for her to tell him to go ahead, but began to make a sandwich for himself. She liked that. As she assembled cheddar and Virginia ham, she wondered if she ought to ask him more about his panic attack, but sensed he didn’t want to discuss it.

  Annie bit into her sandwich and watched him munch on his across from her. The silence in the kitchen was odd, considering they hardly knew each other. But here they were, passing each other mustard and pickles, as if they’d done the lunch thing hundreds of times. As if she were sitting with her father.

  Her father. She’d promised Shirley to let her know today when she was coming to visit. “I should call and see how my dad is.”

  “And you were also going to call Danny.”

  Annie tried not to smile.

  “Are you worried about your father?” he suddenly asked.

  “I know he’s okay. I talked to Shirley yesterday morning.”

  “I meant, worried that he wouldn’t want you to be on your own here—without Danny.”

  It was exactly what had been bothering her for the last twenty-four hours. “If he hears about the Lewis fire…”

  “How would he feel if you told him that you had someone working for you in Danny’s place? Someone who could stay until he was really ready to come home?”

  “Who?”

  His face colored. “Well, me, for instance.”

  It was the perfect solution. He was bigger and stronger than Danny and was also offering to work full-time right away. On the other hand…Annie looked down into her empty glass. Having Will Jennings around twenty-four seven was going to be complicated. She couldn’t deny the spark between them and—unless she tried her best to quell it—it would make working side by side difficult.

  “I’d still stay at the campsite, of course, and go back there for my meals. Not that I don’t appreciate the sandwich—” he grinned “—but you’ll want your privacy and I…well…uh…have other things to do as well.”

  “We can’t pay you much more than we agreed to give Danny.” Her eyes cut back to his. She didn’t want to look desperate, even if she was.

  “Fine by me.”

  His face was as impassive as a poker buff’s, but Annie had a feeling he was smiling inside. “Okay, it’s a deal,” she said.

  “A deal.” He started to clear the dishes. “I’ll wash up while you make your phone calls,” he said. Without waiting for an answer, he walked to the sink.

  Annie stared at his broad, stiff back and wondered for half a moment if she’d lost her mind. A day after asking Will out for a coffee, she’d offered him a job. I’m going to have to do a lot of editing when I tell Dad how Will Jennings ended up working for us.

  “Feel free to phone from another room,” Will said, running water into the sink and squirting detergent into it as he spoke.

  Tiny hairs rose at the back of her neck. He was obviously feeling right at home. She waited a few more seconds then reached behind her for the receiver of the wall phone and, adjusting her chair so she didn’t have to stand, tapped in the number Shirley had given her. It rang several times before someone picked up. Annie asked to speak to Shirley.

  “Hi, Shirley. How are things?”

  “Fine, Annie. I just got back from the hospital. Your father wasn’t in a good mood today so I decided to give him some space.”

  Annie smiled. “Is he up to having a visitor?”

  “He’s up for anything that’ll get his mind off hospital food, nurses who insist on giving him pills and taking his temperature or blood pressure and…what else has he complained about? Oh, the night staff are keeping him awake.”

  Sounds like Dad. It also sounded like Shirley already needed a break. How much more of Jack Collins would the poor woman be able to take? “Well, I thought I’d drive down to see him, uh, tomorrow,” she said, glancing sharply over at Will, who was still washing dishes.

  “Lovely, dear. When can we expect you?”

  “I’ll leave right after breakfast so I should get there just before noon. I’ll go straight to the hospital.”

  “Your father will be very happy to see you.” She added, in a lower tone, “They’re encouraging him to get up on his feet right away, and he’s certainly making a great effort, but the problem is—”

  “He may want to come home with me?”

  “You said it.” Shirley sighed. “They want him to go to a rehab place for two or three days after he’s discharged but he’s already protesting.”

  “But he’d have to go into Essex for physio. He might as well get started there.”

  “That’s w
hat I’ve been trying to tell him.”

  “Well, the two of us will have to present a united front,” Annie said. “Take care, Shirley. Give Dad a kiss and tell him I’ll be there for lunch tomorrow. Tell him I’ll bring him a hamburger and fries.”

  “Maybe you’d better hold off on that. He’s on some special diet right now. See you soon, Annie.”

  As Annie replaced the receiver, Will turned around, drying his hands on the towel from the rack beneath the sink. “Things are well?”

  She gave a quick recap of her conversation. “Shirley can be as stubborn as Dad, so we’ll see what happens.”

  “Does she hold a lot of sway over your father?”

  “Sway?”

  “I mean, does he listen to her?”

  “Not always, but I’ve noticed more and more that he ends up by listening to some of her advice. Grudgingly, of course.” Annie laughed. “Dad isn’t attuned to the social niceties of courtship, I’m afraid. He met Shirley through a mutual friend but still can’t bring himself to say they’re dating or that she’s a girlfriend. Not that he’s fooling anyone.”

  There was a small silence until Will murmured, “Maybe he feels a need to protect you.”

  Annie frowned. She wasn’t interested in discussing her family dynamic with someone she hardly knew. She got out of her chair. “Thanks for doing the dishes. Now, ready for more work? I’ve got to check the colonies at the McLean place and there are two other locations I should have a look at before I leave for Charlotte. On the way, I’ll fill you in on what you can do for me while I’m gone.”

  He didn’t answer for a second. “Sure. Were you going to talk to Danny when we get to his place?”

  “Of course.” Annie grabbed the truck keys from the counter nearest the door.

  “What about your suit? Aren’t you taking it?”

  “Right.” Flustered, she went back to her chair and snatched it up. On her way to the truck, she was already questioning her decision to hire him. Was he always this bossy? What happened to the taciturn, solemn man who was lousy at small talk?

  AS SOON AS Annie’s pickup pulled away from his campsite, Will blew out the pent-up frustration he’d been holding in check for hours. Something had happened between them, right after her phone call to Charlotte. He’d been mulling it over all afternoon but still hadn’t come up with an explanation that made any sense.